From virtual observations to business insights: A bibliometric review of netnography in business research

Netnography is a special kind of qualitative social media research. It applies ethnographic techniques to comprehend social interaction in settings of modern digital communications. This article aims to highlight the key contributors and knowledge structure of this research domain. Utilizing bibliographic data of 722 articles retrieved from the Scopus database, researchers used performance analysis to have insights into the most prolific authors, institutions, countries and journals. Keywords co-occurrence analysis was done to map the knowledge structure. The thematic map tool was used to recognize basic themes, motor themes, niche themes, and emerging themes in order to suggest future research directions. The results indicate that, in terms of research publications, the most productive nation is the United Kingdom. The most lucrative organization has been acknowledged as Griffith University. The most influential author is stated to be Mkono M. The most resourceful source is Journal of Business Research. In addition, three significant knowledge clusters important to study utilizing netnography were identified as a result of co-occurrence of keywords analysis namely, consumer behaviour, co-creation in online brand communities and authenticity. Further, niche and emerging themes include-sustainable tourism, customer engagement and sharing economy. When taken as a whole, this review is a useful tool for quickly understanding the most recent research findings and potential directions for further investigation. An assessment of the state of netnography in business and management research has not been systematically investigated. Hence, the present study aims to thorough a grasp of the state-of-the-art in Netnography research field over the past decades along with the future research directions. Studying the state of the art in the field adds to academic knowledge and provides updated information on the procedure.